Against All We Know
by MayFairy
Summary: Science leads. When Kate Stewart finds herself running into a more than questionable Time Lady, she really doesn't know what to think or how to proceed. But the Rani wants to understand why the Doctor loves humans so much, and so picks one to investigate. But neither of them understand her interest in Kate of all people, or the strangeness of what follows. Post-Day of the Doctor.
1. Let's Try Not To Argue

**Set post-Day of the Doctor.**

**Part One out of (probably) Three or Four. **

* * *

For Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the end of the day had not come a moment too soon. With a sigh of utter relief, she packed away her files and left the Tower of London with thoughts only of her bed. National security could wait until tomorrow.

Her apartment was only a ten minute walk from the Tower of London, for practicality. But she had only walked halfway when she came to a stop. It was probably nothing, but she couldn't shake the idea that one of the pillars next to her was somehow odd. When she approached the one that was irritating her, she realised the problem. It was exactly like the others in every way - except for the fact that before today it had not been there. Walking past the pillars every day meant that she was sure that she was right.

Her hand reached out to touch it. The pillar hummed and she would have been baffled if she hadn't felt that hum once before, from the Doctor's TARDIS. Perhaps that's what it was, another TARDIS. She had heard something about most TARDIS' supposedly being able to change shape, but that the Doctor's was faulty somehow.

Before she could make a decision about what to do or think about it, a nearby voice made her jump.

"Hands off," said a very short, very cross looking woman standing a few feet away. "That's not yours."

"I take it I can't say the same," Kate said mildly, and her guess seemed to have merit if the other woman's tiny smirk was anything to go by.

"No," She replied somewhat wryly.

"Are you a Time Lord?"

The small woman was entirely caught by surprise. "Yes." Then she recovered from the shock and frowned. "Let me guess...you're an acquaintance of that bumbling idiot, the Doctor."

"He's hardly a bumbling idiot, but yes," Kate answered. "How can you be here? I thought you were all dead or locked in a single moment in time."

"Escaping from a stasis cube is not terribly tricky, if you've got the brain and the right kind of help," The woman said offhandedly, but her cool demeanour was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit that had her bending over double.

"Are you alright?" Before Kate could lend a helping hand, she was swotted away.

"Three days ago I got out of the greatest war in the history of the universe, if I were alright, I'd be lying," She snapped.

"You said you had help."

"Yes, the Master is quite ingenious in the very rare instances that he can focus." Seeing Kate's alarmed face, the woman chuckled a little. "I take it you are familiar with him. I wouldn't be worried, he's set his sights on conquering a planet half a galaxy and fifty centuries away, you won't be seeing him."

"That's very reassuring to hear," Kate said. "There are too many files in our database about the incidents that would occur when he decided to drop in."

The Gallifreyan woman leaned on the pillar, breathing heavily and looked tired, but no less alert. "And what database might that be?"

Kate hesitated, but decided just giving her the name couldn't hurt. "UNIT."

"Ah yes. Unified International Taskforce?"

"Unified Intelligence Taskforce."

"Intelligence? You lot?" The Time Lord sneered. "From what I recall, you're just a bunch of trigger happy soldiers who think they know about aliens. And you don't even look like _that_."

"I'm for all intents and purposes their commanding officer. And the regime is different now. We still have the soldiers, yes, but it's under my regime."

"Which is what?" It was obvious that she wasn't expecting much of an answer.

"Science leads," Kate said simply. In response, she got raised eyebrows and a minuscule nod.

"Perhaps you're a fraction less idiotic than I thought. Regardless, I'd best be going. I think this body has about ten minutes left to live, and I have calibrations inside to get done first."

"Wait," The human blurted, "Do you have a name? A title, like the Doctor?"

"I am the Rani," came the reply. With that and a swish of strawberry blonde hair, she disappeared behind the pillar, which dematerialised silently half a minute later.

So with a head no longer solely concerned with bed, Kate Stewart continued on her way home.

* * *

Two months later, Kate was walking through the gallery with a cup of tea, half as a lunch break and half as a way of assuring herself that all was well there after the Zygon fiasco three months before.

So when she rounded a corner and spotted a statue that she had never seen before, she was naturally quite suspicious. She may not be the curator, but she would have known if a new piece of art had arrived.

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart."

Kate turned around to see a woman she had never seen before leaning against the opposite wall. But there was something in the alert eyes, the smirk, and the enigma of the statue. She suddenly had a very good idea who she was talking to.

"The Rani, I take it?"

She got a nod for an answer, and Kate nodded slowly back. She knew about regeneration, obviously, her father had probably met more versions of the Doctor than anyone else – except for perhaps that Sarah Jane Smith. But seeing regeneration on someone who wasn't the Doctor, and remembering that it wasn't just the quirk of one extraordinary man but a normal life process for an entire species…

The Rani was no longer absurdly tiny, which had to be a relief to the woman. Her now longer hair was auburn and tied into an extremely tight braid that hung over her shoulder. While her previous body had barely looked thirty, this one was more around forty. Her face was mature and not exactly pretty but definitely not ugly either. Rather, unique…and the kind of face that made one want to stare and decipher its secrets.

But Kate Lethbridge-Stewart did not stare, or let an alien render her a gaping codfish – not that she was doing anything of the sort.

The Rani's sharp grey eyes watched her with something close to amusement. "You catch on quickly for an ape," Her new and lower voice said.

"It's not difficult to work out."

"No, but you humans have difficulty with the most basic of thought processes."

"How do you know my name? I didn't give it to you before."

The Time Lady shrugged. "I looked you up. I didn't realise that your father was the esteemed Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Not that I take interest in many Earth affairs, but I did have a lengthy school education in which it was briefly mentioned in our studies of other planets."

"If you're not interested in it, why have you come to it twice now?" Kate countered, and the other woman just frowned.

"My usual planet of residence has been…contaminated. Ruined by the Time War. Habitable, sure, but now in complete chemical inbalance. Useless for my work now!" She said with a huff, sounding very brassed off.

"You didn't live on Gallifrey?"

"Of course not! Bunch of snivelling moronic politicians, the lot of them."

"Then which planet did you live on?" Not that it was likely to be one that Kate had heard of, but it seemed polite to ask.

"Miasimia Goria," The Rani said, with a mix of pride and disdain in her tone. "I had the entire population enslaved and forced to help me with my work. It was almost perfect for my experiments. And now look at me. I was aiming for the Cretaceous period, and my TARDIS is so battered that it landed me here instead! This is the Doctor's territory, and I don't care for it in the slightest."

Kate had lifted an eyebrow at 'entire population enslaved' but blinked and let it pass. "If you don't care for it, why don't you just leave?"

"The atom accelerator spun out, it hasn't recalibrated yet, probably won't for another half an hour. I'm stuck in this miserable hole of a place."

"Well then, it looks like you'll spending the next half an hour standing there and feeling sorry for yourself," Kate told her, wondering why either of them were bothering with each other's company in the first place, "Unless you decide to look on the bright side and go have some food or look at a few of the art pieces. Which might be marginally less miserable than not doing so."

With that, she walked off without bothering to see if the alien took her advice. Most likely not.

* * *

Two weeks after that, Kate was sitting on her favourite bench and watching the ravens when someone sat down next to her. When she saw who it was, she sighed.

"For someone who claims to find this place miserable, you tend to turn up here quite a lot," Kate said to the Rani, who was eyeing the ravens suspiciously.

"Why do you have mechanical ravens?" She asked, ignoring the woman's statement.

"Does it matter?"

"No."

"Then why did you ask?"

The Rani didn't answer.

Kate glanced sideways at her. "Why are you here?"

"Because my TARDIS has malfunctioned _again_ and you seem to be the only person in this city worth speaking to," The Rani muttered. Kate wasn't sure whether it was a twisted compliment or not, but it certainly sounded like one.

"Where's your TARDIS this time?"

"Covent Garden." There was a brief silence.

Kate spoke up. "Are you a scientist?"

"Biochemist."

The blonde nodded. "I see. And you can't do your work somewhere like here instead of that planet?"

"Not unless you want a bunch of violent, idiotic men starting fights and riots in the streets…such are the side-effects of my experiments on humans," The Rani said, her lip curling, "Not that I would have qualms about doing it, but in the past when I have used this planet I have tended to use time periods in the middle of wars so as to not draw attention to myself."

"No, I wouldn't want that," Kate said, still rather unsure how she felt about the alien woman next to her. Sometimes she seemed intriguing and at other times quite disturbing. "It occurs to me that there must be as much variation in Time Lords and their morality as there is in humans. And knowing that you were an ally of the Master…in all honesty, how would the Doctor react to finding out that I've been speaking to you? Because obviously the two of you have met."

The Rani laughed. It was an odd sound, low and throaty. "He's the forgiving type. I've not attempted anything massively inhumane on lower species recently, so I think that he would be confused, but not overly worried for your safety, if that's what you wanted to know."

It was, but Kate had no intentions of admitting so.

"I see. How long are you stuck here for this time?"

"At least 24 hours," The Rani muttered, one of her hands clenching into a fist.

"In that case, perhaps you would care to join me for lunch." It was odd enough for Kate to ask, but the Time Lady looked utterly bemused at the offer.

"And why on Earth would I want to have lunch with you? Or vice versa, for that matter."

"You have nothing better to do and I imagine that you'll make for interesting conversation," Kate replied. Then she got up and motioned for a distant Osgood to approach. "Call ahead and ask my regular to put me at a table for two today. I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, Ma'am," The girl said with a nod. Kate thanked her and turned to look at the Rani.

"Are you coming?"

The dark haired woman just sighed and rose from the bench. "I suppose so, but you're paying, I don't have a single piece of currency on me."

The walk there was completely silent. Finally they arrived at the small but upmarket café where Kate had lunch alone every day. Most people would find such a thing lonely, but Kate found it a nice place to be able to gather her thoughts and take a short break from having her attention demanded by absolutely everybody. She loved her job and was extremely dedicated to it, but being so important could be rather draining.

She led the Rani over to a table by the window and sat down, gesturing for the other woman to do the same. The alien did so hesitantly and almost reluctantly. She looked as though she regretted coming already. Her grey eyes darted around the room, resting on every human inside it in turn.

It occurred to Kate that being entirely surrounded by aliens – as that would be how it felt – was not necessarily the most calming experience.

"So, of what nature were the experiments you carried out on that planet? Miasigoria?"

"Miasimia Goria," The Rani corrected, her eyes finally settling on Kate. "And why do you want to know?"

"Well, Time Lords are geniuses. I happen to believe the Doctor to be one of if not _the _greatest mind in the universe-" Her words made the Rani snort, "-but you consider him a bumbling idiot. Naturally, then, I am curious about you and your scientific exploits."

"I take a great interest in altering the biochemistry in the bodies of other species, but also enjoy investigating the chemicals of the brain," The Time Lady replied, "The brain and its functions are obviously fascinating. Even the human brain. Actually, I will admit that the human brain is one of the most interesting of all."

"How so?"

"All those things that interfere with it. Protective instinct over one's young – though that one is common enough and understandable from an evolutionary perspective. Hormones. Pheromones. Lust. _Love_." The last word was said with a noticeable amount of scorn.

"Are you trying to tell me that Time Lords experience none of those things?" Kate asked sceptically.

"Hormones, no. Pheromones, occasionally. Lust?" Her mouth curled into a smirk. "Generally looked down upon as a waste of time or giving into primitive instincts."

"And love?"

"Holding any sort of strong sentiment for another person is weak. Also, I think it scared them."

Kate blinked in surprise. The idea of a superior race being scared by something so trivial was absurd. "In what way?"

"It can't be explained by science, not even by ours. That alone is almost close to our sort of blasphemy," The Rani explained. "Also, my race tend to be inherently self-serving and self-absorbed."

"But the Doctor seems like an incredibly loving person. The love he has for his companions, and for this entire planet…"

"The Doctor is an anomaly, a renegade who like me and some others, found those on Gallifrey terribly dull and so left." The Rani paused as two cups of tea were brought to the table and placed in front of them. Once the server had left, she resumed. "He feels in a way that the rest of us could not begin to comprehend. He _cares_. Why he cares so completely for this planet in particular, I have no idea."

"I always thought that it was the people. The kind of people that travel with him."

"I met a whiny, loud American with more breasts than brains, and a pathetic ginger with terrible taste in clothing. Neither were impressive in the slightest, except perhaps in their unwavering trust in the idiot."

Kate frowned thoughtfully. "Well, I believe that his taste has improved. His current companion, Clara Oswald, is clever, funny and just feisty enough to not let his ego get out of hand. And before that, he had a young married couple. One of them a nurse and the other a Scottish ginger who definitely kept him in line."

The Rani's lips twitched, and her grey eyes held a glint of amusement. "I very much approve of how you speak of him as if he needs a babysitter."

"Well-"

"He does. Such has been the case since he was an adolescent."

"You've known him a long time then," Kate remarked.

"The Doctor, the Master and I were all at school together. The two of them were best friends, completely inseparable. Not that it lasted, but you are aware of how the nature of their relationship turned out, no doubt."

The blonde nodded. "You're rather forthcoming for someone who claims to not be overly fond of us."

"Well, it's not exactly personal information," the Rani said.

"You said that I was the only human worth talking to around here. What makes me so different?"

"You're not _so_ different, but rather just different enough."

"Even so, I still don't see why I'm worth your time."

"Like you said, I don't have anything better to do," The Rani said wryly. "Besides, I think I shall conduct a sort of investigation of my own."

"An investigation of what?"

The Rani took a brief sip of her tea before making a face and putting it back on the table. "You claim that the Doctor's interest in this planet is the people. Therefore, I think I will see if any of its inhabitants impress me enough to make me reevaluate my opinion."

"I think that's a great idea," Kate said honestly, "In a whole planet of nearly seven billion people, one of them is bound to keep your interest somehow."

"I think one already has," The Rani said, her eyes meeting Kate's brown ones as they widened slightly in surprise. "Or at least enough to warrant further investigation."

"Me?" Kate felt it necessary to be sure of her meaning. When the other woman nodded, she frowned. "Firstly, I'm a rather busy woman and there aren't exactly a lot of opportunities for you to 'investigate' me. Secondly, why on Earth have I kept your interest? Surely someone like Richard Dawkins or Einstein would be far more up your alley?"

The Rani seemed to find that immensely funny and began sniggering. "No."

"Well, why me?"

"I'd have thought it was obvious. Head of Scientific Research at a military that specialises in aliens. You have all those men under your control, and you've changed them to how you want them to be. _Science leads._" She tilted her head to regard Kate with quiet interest. "Has it ever occurred to you, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, that you're almost remarkable for a human?"

Kate blinked and then just stared as she tried to form an answer in her head. "I'm just a woman who does a necessary job because I don't trust anyone else to do it."

The Rani scowled. "Your humility is irritating. The only thing worse than someone overestimating their own skills is someone underestimating them."

"If I'm so irritating, then don't investigate me," Kate said mildly, thinking it might be much easier for her mental well-being if this woman didn't keep popping up.

The alien frowned. "Tempting..." She shook her head as a small smile settled on her lips. "But no. It may be irritating but somehow, I think your complete humility may be the key as to why you do such a good job. And I looked you up, so I know that you do."

"As long as you realise that there are certain parts of my day that you can't interrupt for national security reasons...I suppose don't see any reason why you can't 'investigate' me."

"I expected you to be much less accepting of someone barging into your life."

"My reasons are simple enough. You are judging the entirety of humanity on me. Therefore, if I can impress you, in theory you'll be impressed by humanity, and might be willing to come to its aid should it need your expertise. Having one Time Lord for an ally is invaluable - imagine if we had two. And by the sounds of your history, I really don't want you as an adversary of any kind."

The Rani grinned. "And that, Lethbridge-Stewart, is why you are in charge."

Kate tentatively smiled back. Somewhat friendly or not, the Rani was incredibly intimidating and she wasn't exactly comfortable around her just yet. Not afraid, just not relaxed.

Just like with the tea, food arrived without them having ordered. Kate was such a regular that they knew exactly what to send her on each day of the week. With her guest, they merely sent out two of everything.

The Rani picked at her chicken salad with a frown as Kate ate. By the time the food was cleared away, Kate realised that the alien had eaten most of the salad but none of the meat. _Perhaps she's a vegetarian, _the woman considered. After all, the Doctor was a sort of special case. She had no idea what Time Lords usually ate.

Finally, the Rani stood up. "Well, I'll be on my way. My TARDIS might not be able to go anywhere just yet but there is still much more to be done there than anything this city could offer me." She gave Kate an odd, tiny smile. "I imagine we'll be seeing each other again soon enough."

"Alright then," Kate replied, and the Rani just nodded and left without another word.

* * *

Six days later, Kate was in her office going over the paperwork of the latest alien incursion when Osgood came in.

"Kate, that scientist you wanted to interview is here," She said.

"Of course, bring her in," The blonde said with a nod. Osgood nodded and ducked back out only to return ten seconds later with another woman.

"Doctor Frey, this is Kate Stewart, Head of Scientific Research," The girl said.

Kate looked up from her desk to see someone very familiar indeed standing next to her assistant. It took all of her self-control to not start in surprise.

"Doctor Rani Frey," The auburn haired woman said with a slight twinkle in her eyes, "Nice to make your acquaintance, Miss Stewart."

Kate blinked and held out a hand for her to shake. 'Doctor Frey' hesitated for a moment – possibly to remember the greeting custom of the planet, Kate considered – before shaking it briefly.

"Welcome, have a seat," Kate said rather stiffly, and then looked at Osgood. "Thank you, Osgood, that will be all for now."

Once the girl had left and shut the door behind her, Kate leant forward in her chair. "What exactly do you think you're doing?" She demanded.

"I believe I was applying for a position as one of your researchers," the Rani answered, looking rather amused by the whole thing. "About the woman who was supposed to be applying…she is indisposed."

"Unharmed, I hope," Kate said pointedly, and the Rani nodded.

"I'm under the impression that murder tends to get your species rather tetchy, and so avoided it. Small memory wipe, nothing serious."

Kate rubbed her temples. "Why on Earth do you want a job here anyway? Sounds like your worst nightmare."

"Yes and no," the Rani said, "Being surrounded by morons who think they are incredibly intelligent is even worse than being surrounded by morons who think they are mildly intelligent. But my TARDIS will be able to do more advanced repairs if it stays in the same place for a longer amount of time. Besides, I don't back out of an investigation, and ours is barely underway. This allows me to be in closer proximity to observe you and your behaviour."

The reminder of the fact that a superior alien life form was judging the merits of the entire planet off her and her merits was an unpleasant one, and Kate immediately felt rather ill. If the Rani wasn't pleased or impressed, god only knew what she could do the planet if she felt like it.

"You'll have to pretend to be human," Kate told her, only to get a nod as an answer.

"I am aware. But I don't intend to converse with many of the people around here, so it's not a vital point. Will I have my own laboratory?"

Kate sighed and nodded. "Yes, that can be arranged. I'll also try and get you the best equipment that I can, so that you're less restricted by this time period's technology."

The Rani smiled. "Thoughtful, but unnecessary. I intend to keep my TARDIS in the corner of the laboratory and merely use the equipment in there as I see fit."

"Well, that will certainly cost us less money, so I'm not going to argue." The human looked up at the woman sitting across from her. "Well, Rani, it seems that you have yourself a job at the Unified Intelligence Taskforce."

"Now that I'm here, the intelligence in the name might actually be valid," The Rani remarked as she got up from her chair.

Kate was torn between offense and amusement, but the latter won out and she chuckled slightly. The Rani just gave a minute smile, apparently pleased that Kate found the comment amusing.

* * *

"So how is it going in here?"

By visual inspection, it was either going very well or very badly, because the room was brimming with wires and bubbling beakers and pieces of equipment that Kate couldn't even begin to recognise.

"Hard to say," The Rani said. She was in the middle of the fray, her hair up in a tight bun and goggles over her eyes. "It's certainly _going _but that is as much verdict as I can currently offer."

"What are you actually doing?"

"Would you be likely to understand?"

"I suppose not."

"Well then."

Kate glanced around the room and spotted three different cupboards that had TARDIS potential, but she made a guess that the one with wires protruding from the open door was the real deal.

"Do you think that Silurians would be likely to offer me a few samples of their brain fluid?" The Rani asked. "I want to compare it with that of the dinosaurs of the same era. I don't think they would take too kindly to such a suggestion."

"I've never encountered them myself, only read the files from 1970, so I wouldn't know, unfortunately."

"This lot ran into them in 1970?" For the first time, the Time Lady actually looked up, looking rather surprised and intrigued. "Now that _is _interesting. What happened?"

"My father…he thought they were threatening the humans," Kate said slowly, realising how reluctant she was to speak of what her father had done, "He had orders…to blow the base up." She expected the Rani to look saddened or horrified. Instead the woman just sighed and went back to her work.

"It was to be expected. Your race has an uncanny ability to resort to violence and killing when they only _think _they are faced with danger."

"This coming from the woman who talks about killing and human testing and enslavement like they are trivial matters," Kate retorted, surprising herself with how indignant she suddenly felt.

"I've only done those things to creatures that are below me, your _father _and his lot killed creatures who were _far _superior to themselves and might have actually been able to repair the amount of damage you've done to your planet!"

For a moment, Kate just stared at the other woman. Then, with no words that could express her anger and hurt, she turned and left the room without another word.

* * *

Just shy of two weeks later, Kate was just leaving the café after her lunch when she practically collided with the Rani.

"So you _are _here. Good," The Time Lady remarked.

"What do you want?" Kate asked, not bothering to hide how tired and cross she felt. Talking to the occasionally horrid and always condescending alien was not something she particularly felt like doing.

"My investigation. It requires us to actually spend, as you humans would call it, quality time together. Observing you from afar only works so well."

_I couldn't care less about your investigation, _Kate wanted to tell her. Of course, it wasn't true. The part of her that was the Head of Scientific Research at UNIT knew all too well how important it was to keep the Rani amiable. And, if she was being completely honest, about half of the part of her that was just Kate Stewart was still curious as to why the Rani found her somehow more interesting than all the other humans on the planet in any given time period.

Besides, her father had dealt with Time Lords. There was no reason that she couldn't do the same.

Of course, at least her father had known where he had stood. The Doctor was a friend and ally. The Master had been a threat, not to be trusted, known to not have any care for anyone.

But the Rani? The Rani was complex. She would sit across a café table and smile while making friendly enough conversation, but then bring up her past enslavement of inferior species on a distant planet, and experiments in war zones that meddled with human minds. She was neither an enemy nor a friend.

_Time Lords, _said a voice in her head that sounded a lot like her father, _pests, the lot of them, in one way or another. Best left to their own devices if possible. _

Unfortunately, that wasn't currently an option. Kate sighed.

"What did you have in mind?"

The Rani bristled. "_I_ don't know. This is your city, not mine."

"What about a museum? We've got quite a few, all of them excellent." Perhaps if they were walking around exhibits, there wouldn't be a need to make an excess amount of conversation, and there would be less opportunity for the Rani to insult humanity and push Kate's current wary uncertainty about her into active dislike.

"What are the museums like? A wheel, a fire, a car and a plane? The summary of human discovery?"

Kate glanced away, doing her best to ignore the slight. "Well, there's the Science Museum-"

"Oh, yes, human science," The Rani said, her voice blatantly mocking, "Fascinating. _Children _of my world would be bored within ten minutes."

"The Natural History Museum?"

"What's in there?"

"Various specimens of the natural history of this planet. Botany, zoology, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology-"

"Paleontology?" The Rani asked sharply. "Prehistoric life? Dinosaurs?"

"Yes. Huge skeletons and everything," Kate said, nodding.

The Rani nodded too, actually looking somewhat interested at the prospect. "Then we'll go there."

By the time they walked there, they had just settled into a silence that was comfortable. Once they got inside, Kate got a map for both of them, and handed the Rani's to her. They walked into the first room and the Rani's eyes ran over everything before turning to the map in her hands, which she apparently also found very interesting.

Despite showing the most interest in the dinosaurs, the Rani appeared to enjoy almost all of the exhibits as they went through the museum, having not reached the dinosaurs yet. Kate couldn't resist commenting.

"I wouldn't have thought this stuff would be interesting to you," She said, making the Rani tear her eyes from the walls to look at her instead, "Superior science and knowledge considered."

It looked as though the Rani wanted to defend herself, but didn't know how. "My knowledge might cover a lot of this, but in a different way."

"How?"

"What I know of this comes from a general study. This is separate. Specialised. Entirely different perspective, which is very important in this sort of field. Seeing it isolated, in relation to the other parts of itself…" She suddenly trailed off and didn't continue. Kate almost let it slide until she looked at the Rani's face and saw the reluctance in her expression. The blonde had to grin.

"It's interesting," She finished for her companion, her voice triumphant, "You're enjoying this."

The Rani turned away so that Kate couldn't see her face. "Perhaps I am. It means nothing."

"If telling yourself that makes you feel better, then by all means do so," Kate told her, unable to keep the smugness out of it. She wasn't usually a smug person in the least, but interacting with this woman was such a battle that getting a step ahead like this was just too sweet.

Unsurprisingly, the Rani chose not to answer her, and instead pressed on through the museum, leaving Kate to trail behind. That was when they finally reached the dinosaur skeletons. The huge structures took up most of the room, and the different forms were all incredible to behold, even for Kate, who had no specific interest in dinosaurs and had seen the skeletons before anyway.

But when she looked over at the Rani, she was surprised to see a light in her eyes that almost looked like a childish delight. It only lasted for a few moments before the woman was back to regarding the exhibits around her with a more scientific gaze. But even that held more life and passion in it than Kate had ever seen in her, and most likely would ever see again.

After several minutes, Kate asked her quietly, with genuine interest, "What is it about dinosaurs that you like so much?"

The Rani turned, eyeing her with vague surprise, probably at Kate expressing curiosity in her personal opinions and feelings. "Their potential was never realised," She answered, her eyes drifting back to the huge Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that towered in front of them, "It's a personal…preference that is difficult to explain."

"You don't have to explain wasted potential," Kate replied. "It's one of the most tragic things to exist. To see something that could have been so magnificent…only for that possibility to be lost."

The Time Lady blinked, only to frown afterwards. "I suppose it isn't as difficult as I believed. You humans can be so dense that it's never easy to tell."

Kate decided then and there that any further insults to her race were simply to be ignored. It wasn't worth being bothered by them. The backhanded compliments and veiled superiority were not likely to stop any time soon.

"Well, I personally don't see the potential magnificence of the dinosaurs, but I'm just a human, so what would I know?" She said.

"Magnificence is hardly the right word. It's far too romantic."

"What's the point in being passionate about something if you don't have at least a little bit of romantic notion?"

The Rani rolled her eyes. "Chemists are not romantic. I am no exception."

"Really? I had no idea."

* * *

**I'm really happy with how this turned out. But feedback is very much appreciated so please let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading!**

**Note: I like Mel and love Peri, but the Rani was never going to have a high opinion of them, hence the nature of her comments about them. **

**Next chapter is gen like this one, with just a touchy of shippiness, for those who want the gen but not the femslash. **

**See you guys soon,**

**-MayFairy :)**


	2. Attractive But Bitter

**And here is chapter two! For those who enjoyed chapter one but don't want the femslash, you're in luck. Due to reasons of characterisation/****believability, this chapter is also gen. So, read away and you'll find it's only the teeniest bit shippy. **

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and read so far! :)**

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When Kate Stewart arrived on the scene, she saw a group of frantic human scientists outside their research building, and one irritated Time Lady trying to argue with the soldiers who were not allowing her back inside.

"As you are all now most likely aware," The blonde said to them all, raising her voice, "A Slitheen managed to infiltrate us and fit several of our buildings with a chemical weapon. Unfortunately, we have all been partially or briefly exposed and now must hope that the effects aren't potent enough to cause us real harm. No one is permitted to re-enter the buildings for their own safety. Everyone is to return home and avoid contact with anyone. Go home, keep to yourself, shower to try and get the chemicals off, and then stay put for 48 hours. After that, effects will be evaluated and we can proceed from there."

There was muttering amongst the group, but it wasn't as though they could argue with her. As they began to disperse, the Rani came up to Kate.

"And what about me? My home is in there, and you're not allowing me back in," She said, not bothering to hide how annoyed she was by the whole situation.

"Yes, well…" Kate frowned. "I can't have you wandering around. You'll have to come with me."

"Where?"

"To my apartment. I still have to undergo the 48 hour evaluation period, and it wouldn't kill you to do the same, even though your superior biology means that you are likely to be fine. And I don't trust you with anyone else."

* * *

Kate's apartment was ten stories up and full of natural light, and spacious yet cosy. Usually, she felt immediately better just for being in it, but not today. Today she had dangerous chemicals and a potentially volatile Time Lady to worry about.

The Rani didn't look impressed by the apartment so much as vaguely interested. It wasn't likely that she had been inside a huge amount of human residences. What were houses like on Gallifrey?

"Well, I'll take the first shower, and then while you're in, I'll come up with something for us to eat," Kate suggested. "I'll be quick, but I need to be thorough too. Just…make yourself at home."As she left for the bathroom, she saw the Rani cast her eyes around the room before sitting at the small dining table. Kate shook her head and hurried into the bathroom. She turned on the shower, undressed and got in. It was tempting to stay there indefinitely, but she couldn't risk leaving the Rani alone for too long. So she grabbed some soap and began scrubbing furiously at her skin, hoping that she got every inch and rid it of any excess chemicals.

She stepped out and wrapped a towel around herself before leaving the bathroom and going to her bedroom to throw on a new blouse and a new pair of slacks. She decided against shoes, and came out into the kitchen area.

Seeing the Rani in her apartment was an odd sight, even though it was expected. In her high heeled boots, tight leggings, long shirt and metallic jacket, she hardly looked domestic. On the contrary, she really did look otherworldly, and the long braid of auburn hair and unconventional but unforgettable facial features only emphasised her difference from the setting around her.

"You can go in now." Kate crossed over to the kitchen cupboards and began looking for something that might be usable for dinner. "There's a spare towel in there which you can use. I'll find some spare clothes of mine that you can wear."

The Rani sounded as though she was grumbling under her breath, but when Kate turned around again, she was leaving the room and pulling the tie off the end of her braid.

The inhabitant of the apartment went back to food, but all she could find was some canned vegetables and some bread that had gone off. Such were the dangers of being a workaholic who barely ate at home. So instead, Kate grabbed the phone and ordered some Chinese instead, asking specifically for one of the containers to be vegetarian only – she recalled the Rani not eating chicken at the café and thought it was safer to guess that she was a vegetarian of some kind.

Her wardrobe wasn't massively full of anything other than trouser suits – none of which she was keen on sharing – but she did find some old jeans and a plain navy shirt that would do well enough. She laid them out on the bed. She then considered something else before deciding that she wasn't going to give the Rani any of her underwear because the concept was too strange. No, she could just keep the clothes when she was done.

She returned to the living area and five minutes later, the Rani emerged, wearing the jeans and shirt. Her hair was loose for the first time that Kate had seen, long and dark and falling down her back in very damp strands.

"What are you going to do with my clothes?" The alien asked. "Those are my favourite boots."

"Unfortunately, if there are detrimental effects are 48 hours, we'll need to burn them," Kate admitted. The Rani didn't look pleased. But due to the absence of the aforementioned boots, she was suddenly shorter than Kate was used to. They were exactly the same height. Trying to not let such a small thing disconcert her, she coughed and went back to what she had been about to say. "I've ordered Chinese food. Are you a vegetarian?"

The Rani blinked and looked at her with surprise. "Yes, most Time Lords are."

"Good," Kate said with a pleased smile, "Because I thought so, and I ordered you a vegetarian dish."

"I take it you noticed that I didn't eat the meat in the café."

"Yes."

The Rani smiled back. "You might just do yet, Stewart."

Kate nodded, glad to have been right. She went to her cupboard and found an old bottle of wine that she couldn't even remember buying. "Want a drink?"

"Sure," Her guest said, looking amused. So Kate took two glasses and poured the red liquid out before handing one of the glasses to her. "This is actually better than I expected. I suppose if there's something I can expect from a primitive culture, it's good alcohol."

Kate surprised herself by laughing. "You think that I would be used to your backhanded compliments by now."

"I'd have thought so as well," The Rani agreed, "Though I suppose it means that if I ever give you a real compliment, you will value it that much more." Her eyes darted to the door that led out onto the balcony. "Could we go outside? I'd be glad of the fresh air."

"Of course."

"If you can call it fresh with the amount of pollution in this city. Though I suppose I've encountered worse."

Kate chose not to comment on that.

They went to stand out on the balcony, leaning against the railing with their wine glasses. The sun was starting to set and the rays of the colour that were decorating the sky over London were stunning.

"I suppose this is one of those picturesque sights that the Doctor would call beautiful," The Rani said, making the woman next to her wonder if she truly didn't find it beautiful, or whether she was trying to find a less direct way of admitting it.

"You don't think it is?"

"If you'd seen a Gallifreyan sunset, you'd understand."

"Why, what did they look like?"

The Rani frowned. "There are two suns, the second of which sets in the north. The sky is burnt orange, so come sunset and sunrise, it is streaked with gold and silver. And if the light hits the trees just right, it looks like they have burst into flames." She looked at Kate, who realised that she was staring and was quick to look back out to her own sunset which seemed a little more mundane than it had before. "I suppose if anything is beautiful, it's that. But I've never put a lot of stock into beauty. The sunset paints a perfect picture, true, but it can't erase the fact that the planet is full of pompous, frigid, metathesiophobic morons."

For a few moments Kate was unsure of how to reply, and her gaze stayed fixed on the other woman, trying to understand. "Why don't you value beauty? The people on this planet might put too much stock into it, sure, but without it, what's the point? Where's the point in being alive if you can't find something beautiful?"

"You find knowledge."

"Why not both? The way I see it, knowledge makes your brain happy, but beauty makes your heart happy."

"Well, I have two hearts, it explains why I'm so difficult to satisfy."

Kate just shook her head and laughed a little. She looked over at the other woman, and realised, with a jolt, that the Rani was actually rather striking. The rays of the setting sun cast shadows on the angles and lines of her face and made her grey eyes almost glow. The red in her hair sparkled in the light and her lips were set in an odd, ironic smile, different because they were bare as opposed to their usual painted crimson.

The unexpected beauty caught Kate off-guard and she felt a strange and foreign weight in her stomach.

Luckily, a knock from inside shook her from her thoughts and shattered the surprising moment.

Quickly, she hurried to the door to take the Chinese food and shove money in the delivey boy's hand before shutting the door in his face. She couldn't risk infecting anyone with the chemicals, after all.

"The food's here," She called out to the Rani, who came inside. They lay out the food and sat at the dining table to eat in a considerable amount of silence. With a small amount of satisfaction, Kate noted that the Rani ate quickly almost looked to enjoy the meal, especially considering that she finished her entire dish.

"So, to clarify," The Rani finally said as she put her empty plate to the side and picked up her wine glass, "You're not permitting either of us to leave this apartment for the next 46 hours and 35 minutes."

Kate frowned. "Yes."

"Did it occur to you that you hold no actual authority over me and that I could simply walk out of that door any time that I pleased?"

It had, but Kate had tried to ignore that line of thinking. She evenly held the Rani's somewhat smug gaze. "I might not hold authority over the Rani, but I do hold authority over Doctor Rani Frey. Leave here against my permission and I would have the right to fire you."

"And my world would be shattered," The Rani said with dripping sarcasm.

Kate sighed, and said, "If you wish to leave, I can't really stop you and we both know it."

The other woman leant back in her chair and took a long, slow sip of wine from her glass. "Yes, but I don't."

"Then why mention it at all?"

The Time Lady smirked. "To be sure that you are always aware of where we stand." There was a brief silence where Kate just stared and the Rani paused. "But 47 hours of direct exposure will speed my investigation along very well, and heavily decrease the amount of time I will need to remain on this planet."

"Nothing is keeping you here, your TARDIS is practically fully repaired, you told me so yesterday," Kate pointed out.

"I don't abandon my investigations, no matter how much I might wish to. Whether or not either of us like it, we will have to endure each other's company a little while yet."

There was only one small flaw in the Rani's words, and Kate pointed it out. "If you have to endure my company, wouldn't that prove your investigation inconclusive?"

"It is not so much your company but the company that tends to form around you. I have no interest in any of the others who tend to linger," The Rani remarked with distaste. That was when her grey eyes scanned the apartment. "So what do you do in this place to keep yourself occupied?"

"I'm not usually here for extended amounts of time," The blonde woman admitted as she moved her leftovers to the fridge and dumped their plates in the sink to be dealt with later. "This will probably be as tiresome for me as it is for you. There's the television, and books. I have some paperwork I need to go over, though, sorry."

The Rani shook her head. "Coming from you, Stewart, I'd be rather disappointed if you didn't bring your work home. Your dedication is one of your admirable qualities."

"I'll do most of it now, and then it's out of the way. My bookshelf is quite extensive if you want to take a look. I have a lot of the classics."

The Time Lady approached the bookshelf and examined its contents. "Do you only have fiction?"

"My non-fiction tends to stay at my office. Sorry if none of it is to your taste, but it's the best I can do," Kate told her with a shrug as she took out her paperwork and laid it on the table. Meanwhile, her guest went back to the bookcase.

"Do you have any recommendations?"

"I didn't realise that someone such as yourself would have difficulty with something as simple as selecting a book." When the Rani glared, Kate found herself finding it rather funny, and couldn't hide her - slightly smug - smile. After a few second's deliberation, she said, "Try _Lord of the Flies_. It explores the nature of humanity, and weighs it against the effects of the environment."

"It sounds like science," The brunette said, locating the book and turning it over in her hands, "And yet it is a book about schoolchildren getting stranded on a remote island."

"Why don't you just trust me? Of all of the books in the shelf, I think it is one you will enjoy," Kate assured her associate. "Just read it."

"Don't tell me what to do," The other woman said with a frown, but took the book with her to the couch. She perched there in a reasonably sophisticated position and began to read.

Ten minutes later, when Kate glanced over, the Rani looked to be completely absorbed in the text - which it looked like she was already somehow halfway through. After another ten minutes, the book shut and was placed back in the bookcase. Its reader sat on the arm of the couch silently.

Without looking up from her paperwork, Kate addressed her. "Did you finish it?" She almost added _already_ onto the question, but realised that an alien with superior intelligence was quite likely to have done so, and that there was no need to emphasise the distance between their IQs. When the Rani answered in the affirmative but gave no more information, the human woman added, "Did you enjoy it?"

"It was interesting," The biochemist said rather reluctantly. "But it only proves my initial thoughts of you creatures to be correct. Even your children turn to killing."

"It's just a story." Kate finally lifted her eyes to meet the Rani's grey ones. "Our children would not resort to killing."

"It's in your blood, that crude need to lash out," the Rani answered, pushing hair back from her face, "You realise that you are one of the only species that feels the need to kill others. Others kill prey, they have a natural food chain, but the killing of the same species doesn't occur."

"We're not all killers."

"You're all _potential_ killers."

"You can't just generalise us like that!" Kate snapped. The Rani's lip curled and the woman sneered.

"As opposed to what? All your species does is generalise because you're all too busy to bother learning about each other's complexities. Why put the time in to admit that everyone around you is a complex and singular being when instead you can put everyone into neat little categories and then go about your business? You don't even respect each other, how can you expect others like me to do so?"

Kate crossed her arms, trying her very hardest not to yell at the woman opposite her. "Well now you're just contradicting yourself. First you generalise us, then tell me that we shouldn't generalise. You put us all into neat categories and you certainly don't spend time learning about the individual complexities of humans."

"But it's different, because it's your own species. I am an observer, I can make whatever generalisations and categorizations I like." The Rani looked as though she was trying to look tall, but in bare feet, she lacked the height and heels to quite pull it off. But despite her more ordinary look with her half damp hair and borrowed clothes, she still held herself like a queen. Or rather, a lady, which Kate had to remind herself the woman actually was. And not just any sort of lady, but a powerful and genius lady of Time, which was why she was supposed to be trying to appease her.

But she was being horrid and difficult again, and how was she supposed to put up with it?

That was when she realised that her hands had balled into fists where they had fallen to sit in her lap. She slowly released them, only to catch the Rani eyeing them.

"Did I hit a nerve?" The woman asked, smirking, and it did the opposite of help Kate's feelings of irritation and offense.

"If you insult a person's species enough, it tends to happen," The blonde replied icily. "Look, you clearly have no respect for my race, or me as a person and a human. This entire 'investigation' is pointless and ridiculous."

The Rani just lifted an eyebrow.

"If you can't keep your unnecessary and disrespectful comments to yourself, this isn't going to work," Kate continued, her voice louder and stronger, "I don't care if you're a Time Lady, I won't be insulted in my own home. Either learn to deal with the humanity around you and find something positive, or show yourself out." She wasn't sure quite when it had happened, but she had stood, and the Rani had risen from her perch on the arm of the couch, putting them both on their feet, and precisely eye to eye.

"Did it ever occur to you, Kate, that I do respect you?"

Kate felt her chest burn curiously. It had not been the answer she expected. Her mouth open and shut a couple of times before she shook her head and tore her eyes from her guest.

"If that is even remotely close to the truth, you have a funny way of showing it," She murmured.

"You make it sound as though I'm used to having respect for people. It's...shall we say...not exactly my forte," The Rani admitted wryly. "Would you be interested in hearing a little more about my past so that you might come to have a better understanding of...how I am?"

The human woman looked back at her and nodded with slightly widened brown eyes. "Yes, I would." They sat back at the table opposite each other and pushed the paperwork to the side.

The alien sat neatly in her chair, with one leg crossed over the other. Her hands began to braid her drying hair at the same time she began to speak.

"As you know, I was born on Gallifrey and grew up on Gallifrey. I'm the same age as the Doctor, though like him, my travels in time have left me being not entirely sure exactly how old that is. In my youth, I attended the Academy where I spent a century and a half or so learning about the universe. There I went by the name of Ushas. I specialised in biochemistry. At our graduation, there was an incident involving a giant rat of mine that I would rather not speak of. After graduating and choosing the name 'the Rani', I spent most of my time in my lab with my experiments." The Rani finished the braid and used the band around her wrist to tie it off at the end.

"You said that you didn't live on Gallifrey, though. How did you end up leaving?" Kate asked, having been listening very intently.

The Time Lady's expression turned sour. "An experiment went wrong. One of my giant mice ate the Lord President's cat." Kate had to smother a chuckle at that. "I was exiled, but I managed to hijack the computer of the TARDIS they sent me away in, and so I became a renegade like the Doctor and many others before me."

"And you ended up on that planet of yours, Miasimia Goria."

"Yes."  
That was when the truth of it all hit the Brigadier's daughter rather quickly. "You were there for centuries on your own, weren't you?"

"There were the natives," The Rani muttered.

"But they wouldn't have counted - not to you," Kate pointed out perceptively, "You were alone for all that time. You're barely used to human - well, humanoid - interaction, let alone having professional or friendly relationships."

"I never cared for them on Gallifrey, it made no difference."

"Everyone needs to interact with other people." Kate paused and stared at the woman across from her with a frown. "Even you."

"I am...right now," The dark haired woman pointed out. "Science always made more sense to me."

Kate had to smile curiously at that, and it didn't immediately occur to her that she also didn't spend enough time socially with others outside of her work. "In what way?"

"Science is predictable if you're knowledgeable enough. Even with experiments, you know most of the likely outcomes. People are complex and temperamental, ruled by their current mood and their inherent personality. All different, all difficult."

"I thought humans were supposed to be all the same, and hence predictable?"

The Rani rolled her eyes. "Most are, as are Time Lords. But the few that aren't are difficult."

"But as you said, Rani," Kate recalled, "It simply requires more time to understand every singular person." There was a hint of teasing in her tone, to her own surprise. When exactly had the Rani become easy to tease? It just suddenly seemed so normal to be doing.

The reaction she got - a tiny eye roll - only made it more obvious. The teasing didn't even annoy her - if anything, she seemed to like having someone challenge her. Not that the Rani ever gave off even the slightest indication that she felt challenged, most likely because of her confidence in her own abilities and beliefs would not allow it or did not render it necessary.

They sat in silence for a little while, having exhausted the topic, and eventually the pair of intelligent grey eyes in front of Kate moved to the television.

"You said it would pass time?"

And so they ended up at opposite ends of Kate's - not particularly large - couch. Their discussion began with simple inquiries from the Rani about the different varieties of programmes and movies available on the television. Kate informed her of: soap operas, dramas, science fictions, game shows, news programmes, reality television, movie channels, documentaries, and anything else she could think of. But somehow, of all things...they ended up watching _The Bachelor._

"And this is_…reality_ television?" The Rani asked thirty seconds into the show. "This is actually something that 27 women signed up for?"

"Well, yes, but it's almost entirely fake."

"Then why is it called reality television?"

"Because they pretend it's real, and people are moronic enough to believe it." At the same time, they looked at each other, somehow knowing that they had both heard just how much Kate had sounded like the Rani when she had spoken. "...it's true, the people who watch this are moronic," Kate said rather defensively, pointedly not looking at her guest, who smiled crookedly.

"_We're_ watching it," She reminded Kate.

"But we're not invested in it, thinking that it is real."

The Rani lifted an eyebrow. "So we're watching it ironically?"

Kate paused before nodding. "Yes, exactly. It's a chance to mock and laugh at humanity, I'd have thought that you would be pleased."

"I don't believe that I complained."

The two of them shared a look of understanding and a matching small smile, before turning their heads back to the screen.

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**Now, for real, next time will have teh femslash. :P **

**Thanks for reading, reviews are very much appreciated!**

**-MayFairy :) **


	3. Can We Be Wrong Tonight

**Thanks for all the support, favourites, follows and reviews! It is much appreciated. **

**Warning: Femslash from here on out. :P**

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They watched the evening news, then nature documentaries, and history documentaries. By the time they'd had as much television as they could bear, Kate suggested ice cream. Despite the Rani's initial protests, she eventually gave in and the two of them enjoyed bowls of boysenberry ripple.

"The dishes will need doing," Kate said tiredly.

"I suppose I might as well help you."

"You? Doing dishes?" The human woman had begun to walk to the kitchen, but stopped and looked back incredulously.

"I am perfectly capable of doing menial tasks when necessary," The Rani said, not looking bothered. "There is no shame in simple work for the sake of cleanliness and order."

Kate found it rather odd despite the logic involved. She just shook her head and rolled her sleeves up as the sink filled with hot water. The Rani approached the kitchen sink and examined the bottle of washing liquid.

"This isn't very well made," She told her associate, "Half the chemical makeup is the colour and the fragrance, which is hardly important compared to the quality of the cleaning."

"Quit criticising and just squirt some into the sink." When the Rani did just that, Kate glanced sideways at her. "Maybe I should take you with me to the store next time I buy dishwashing liquid."

"My dedication only goes so far," came the answer, "And domestic food shopping goes much further."

"Dedication?" Kate asked with a lifted eyebrow and tiny smile. "Outside of your science experiments, it's not a word I would apply to you. Unless you mean this investigation?"

"Well what else would I mean?" The Rani murmured, taking the first washed dish from Kate and rubbing it dry with a tea towel.

Kate plunged her hands into the soapy warm water again. She didn't really know how to answer. "You make it sound like I would know. You're the most unfathomable person I've ever met." She didn't get a reply, but she was so busy waiting for one that she accidentally moved her hand too quickly. A serrated knife floating in the water ripped across her forearm in a stinging slash of an instant. "Shit!" She pulled her arm out to see a red line forming and beginning to ooze blood.

"Good job," The Rani said sarcastically, "Do you have a medical kit?"

"I think I have some plasters in the cupboard over there." She gestured vaguely and ran her arm under the cold tap to get rid of the blood. Then two plasters were handed to her, only to be snatched away a moment later.

"Actually, perhaps I best do it." The Rani peeled away the wrappers - not disguising her subtle curiosity for the simple band-aids - and laid one then the other plaster onto the small injury. Her long fingers smoothed over the rubbery surface and onto the skin of Kate's arm, ensuring that they were properly applied. "There."

Kate thanked her in a sort of mumble and took her arm back to examine it before - carefully - going back to doing the dishes. After a minute or so, she spoke again.

"Would I be wrong in assuming that it's been centuries since you spent this much friendly time with a person?"

"No," Her guest replied, "But that was how I preferred it."

"What changed? I know you say the investigation, but to even think it up, a few things must be different now than how they were then."

The Rani frowned, and snatched the dish from Kate's hands so that she could roughly scrub at it. "Stop acting as though you know so much about me. You still don't."

"I think I know more than most," Kate said quietly, "And I'm just trying to understand. As odd as it is, you seem to be the person I spend the most time with these days."

"And why do you think that is?"

"Because I'm too busy, usually." The blonde sighed as she finished off the last dish. "And even when I'm not, who would I be friends with? How could I possibly be interested in someone who still doesn't believe in other worlds, let alone know about my position in UNIT?"

"Don't you have a son? Doesn't he know what you do?"

Kate blinked, having not expected the Rani to know about her son, but then, the woman had looked her up after their first meeting. "Yes. Gordon. He knows about what I do. But he lives in Manchester now, and has a fiance. We're too busy for each other most of the time." There was a brief pause before Kate turned to look at the Rani with slightly narrowed eyes. "_You _don't have children, do you?"

The Rani actually laughed as she finished off drying the final bowl. "What do you think?"

"Honestly?" Kate asked, smirking. "I think that you're the least maternal person I've ever met, and would sooner cut off a finger than have a child."

"That just about sums it up," The other woman chuckled. Then she turned thoughtful. "But in terms of spending time with other intelligent beings...perhaps I'm less fussy in my slightly older age. Regeneration may have made some adjustments as well."

"You _must_ be getting less fussy if you're referring to me as an intelligent being."

"I always considered you to be an intelligent being, Stewart." At Kate's incredulous look, the Rani shrugged. "For a human."

"And there it is," Kate said, throwing her soap sodden hands up, "I'm past being surprised." With her action, water and soap suds flew through the air and landed on the two women as well as the bench. But mostly Kate herself. "Urgh." She grabbed the tea towel and used it wipe the suds off of her shirt - patches of which were now slightly transparent due to the light, pale fabric of her blouse coming into contact with the water.

"This is why dishwashers were invented," The Rani grumbled, "Why don't you have one?"

"I find doing the dishes peaceful," Kate defended as she turned around to lean back against the counter instead of facing the sink set in it, "Besides, I'm not usually home to use them."

The Rani just shook her head more and rolled her eyes as she reached past her to grab the tea towel where it had been put down on the bench on the other side of Kate, who tried to push herself back against the counter to allow her more room. Just as her hand closed around the tea towel, the Rani looked up to find herself directly in front of Kate, face inches from hers, eyes locked.

As brown met grey there was an infinite moment. Both women stood very still, as if they would met great peril if they shifted even an inch. Kate - now a little absorbed in the cool intelligence of the Rani's eyes - found herself recalling that odd moment several hours before on the balcony. The same heaviness in her stomach returned, much to her confusion.

And then it was over and the tea towel was in the Rani's hand and the Time Lady was standing several metres away, eyeing her with curiosity. Kate frowned and rubbed her temples.

"You look tired," The brunette said to her. "Isn't it about time you were in bed?"

"I'm not sure that I'm comfortable going to sleep and just leaving you out here."

The Rani smirked. "You still don't trust me to behave?"

Kate sighed. "No. Well...maybe. I don't know. Everything about you is complicated."

"You could always contact the Doctor and ask him to try and remove me." It was plainly a joke, but interestingly enough a rather viable scenario that Kate hadn't even considered for some reason.

"I don't need his help with you," She said firmly, and then paused. "Besides, I never said I wanted you removed, just that trusting you is difficult. I'm surprised that you've managed to go this long without your laboratory."

"Not all of us have the attention span of a human child like the Doctor," The Rani haughtily said. "Most of us are very patient. We dislike waiting, but are very good at it."

"But how many others things are there for you to do if I go to bed?"

"There's an entire bookcase. Not ideal, but passable. Also, your television, if I must."

Kate couldn't help but frown again. "I'm still not comfortable with it. I don't usually have anyone over, ever. And you're not just a passive human, you're...you."

The Rani took a step closer and smiled rather smugly. "What are you afraid of, Stewart?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," Kate snapped. She was starting to feel very nervous, and couldn't fathom why. But the last thing she wanted was for the Rani to know that. To keep up the facade of confidence, she also took a step forward instead of the step back she would have preferred.

"Then why are your hands shaking?" The Rani loosely grabbed the aforementioned hands and held them up for a moment to prove her point. Kate abruptly snatched them back to her sides, trying not to ball them into fists.

She wanted to have a good comeback, to deny it or justify it or come up with some kind of excuse, but nothing came to her. Her mouth opened as she tried to speak, but nothing came out no matter how hard she tried. She was, for no understandable reason, tongue-tied.

But the Rani's smug look lasted for only a second before it shifted into something odd, something unidentifiable that did anything but help Kate's nerves.

"Look at that," She said quietly to Kate, eyeing her, "You're out of prattle."

Without knowing how it happened or who moved, suddenly their lips were touching, tentatively, like an experiment in itself. It lasted just for a moment before they both jerked away only to stare at each other.

Kate's eyes were wide as she felt more confusion and surprise than she could possibly ever remember feeling, and the Rani looked incredibly thoughtful. Again, the former was unable to form words.

"You look like an animal confronted by headlights," The Rani said, and Kate's verbal block disappeared as she found herself laughing, albeit very nervously.

"Of all the things for you to say," She said, almost giddily.

The Rani chuckled for a moment before she became more serious. "What would you rather me say?" Her voice dipped a tone lower, and Kate found herself taking in a sudden breath.

"I...I don't know," She admitted, "I never thought...you said that your people didn't do this sort of thing." It wasn't exactly what she wanted to say, but she couldn't be sure what she did want to say, and saying anything was better than being dumbstruck for the third time.

"We do, just not often."

"But I'm not...I've never really been attracted to-" Kate stammered the words, turning rather pink. "I mean, you're a woman."

"Very observant of you."

"But I'm not - I never have been..._gay_," She finally said.

"You humans and your ridiculous categories," The Rani said, sounding both irritated and amused at the same time, though how she managed both was an utter mystery to Kate. The Time Lady took a strategic step and before Kate knew it, she was against the kitchen counter with the Rani's hands planted on the marble either side of her. "I can hear your little singular heart pounding. Your pupils are dilated. Regardless of whatever category you may think you belong in, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, you seem to be attracted to me." She leaned in so that their lips were a hair's breadth apart.

It then dawned on her exactly what was happening. She had kissed _the Rani_...and was a breath away from doing so again. And the oddest part was that she wanted to. This infuriating, sometimes horrid, 'superior' woman that she wasn't even sure that she liked or trusted, she had suddenly become something potentially quite different. And it was terrifying.

But it was also overwhelming and a surprising heat was starting to sit under her skin.

By that point, Kate had lost the ability to breathe but managed to whisper, "So are you going to kiss me or not?" The Rani then did just that, and it was strange, slow, and warm despite the Rani's cooler skin.

Upon breaking apart, Kate let her very human and hot-blooded instincts take charge, and she put a hand on either side of the Time Lady's face so that she could kiss her deeply and passionately, so much so that both of them were shocked. The Rani was mostly still, but her hands eventually came to rest on Kate's waist.

Eventually they broke apart, breathing very heavily - Kate especially. But the Rani seemed rather taken aback. Despite her calm demeanour, it was clear that she really wasn't used to such activities.

Kate offered the other woman a small, funny smile, only to find herself being yanked forward, turned, and pressed against her pantry door for a thorough snogging. As hands began to wander just a little, it became clear that what was happening wasn't showing any sign of slowing down. And that brought up a whole new line of mental panic. Kissing was one thing, but…

That was when Kate realised that in that moment, she was going to act on impulse for the first time in decades, do what she for some reason _very_ much wanted to do, and deal with the repercussions in the morning.

"You know," She breathed against the Rani's lips, "I may have just thought of a solution to this bed issue."

The Rani laughed, a proper laugh that sunk into the skin of Kate's neck. "Lead the way, Lethbridge."

Kate hesitated for a moment before grabbing her hand and slowly pulling her in the direction of the bedroom. "You know, you can call me Kate."

"Alright then."

They got into the bedroom, and some of Kate's courage waned as she glanced around the room and her mind raced ahead to all the possible scenarios. She turned abruptly to the Rani. "You know, I don't usually do-" She was cut off by a swift and forceful kiss on the Rani's part, and the two of them fell back onto the soft double bed that dominated the room's space. As the new, unexplainable but consuming need filled her, she gave into the strangeness of what she was doing and decided to worry about it later.

The Rani's hands went to the buttons of Kate's blouse and began to undo them until the shirt could be thrown on the floor behind them. Meanwhile, Kate's hands were gaining the courage to reach under the bottom of the borrowed navy shirt the Rani was wearing. Her fingers and palms traced the skin around her lower back and stomach, only to find strange rough lines. When she partially pushed up the fabric, she saw scars there, brutal, painful looking scars embedded in the pale skin.

"When did you get these?" Kate asked, surprising herself with how worried she was.

"They're from the Time War," The Rani said, scowling down at them. The two women shifted so that they were sitting on the bed facing each other with their legs partially overlapping. Already, in the space of a few minutes, their relationship had begun to shift and open up into something new.

Kate touched a scar gently. "Do they hurt?"

"Not usually."

"But how can they be from the Time War? I thought the whole point of regeneration was to be renewed."

The Rani rolled her eyes, but not at Kate. "It is. But the Daleks are geniuses, they manufactured weapons that could give injuries so deep that they could not be healed by regeneration, at least not completely."

Wordlessly, slowly and deliberately, so that there was plenty of time for the Rani to stop her, Kate took the bottom of the navy shirt in her hands and pulled it over the Rani's head. Because she had been reluctant to lend the Rani any undergarments, the Time Lady's torso was bared to her.

The scars - about two inches line and ranging from one to four millimeters thick - also graced her arms and shoulders, as well as a few across her breasts and ribcage.

Kate's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my god."

For the first time, a seed of insecurity - or at least, uncertainty - lay in the Rani's grey eyes. "Are they horribly ugly?"

The blonde head tilted to the side, considering. "No, not exactly. It's just that I never really thought of you as a warrior."

"I'm not," The brunette said, gritting her teeth, "But the war called for desperate measures. Besides, you don't have to be a warrior to get injured."

"Are there many other Time Lords who look like this?"

"Quite a few, but I don't imagine you would find many who look worse than me."

"Why?"

The Rani shrugged. "I was a renegade who had been exiled. I was trouble. So they sent me on the most dangerous missions and into the most ferocious battles. The Doctor was the same, once he finally decided to join in, though he went of his own free will."

Kate almost wanted to reach out and touch her, given their current position and the depth of the conversation, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Despite them unexpectedly delving into physical intimacy, comforting touches branched more into emotional intimacy, which was certainly not something they had. Instead she settled for saying rather honestly, "It's hard to imagine anyone being able to hurt you."

"Oh really?"

"You seem so indomitable."

"I am," The Rani said, "But there are always limits. The Time War and the High Council's control was mine."

"Are you under their control now?"

"Of course not," Her lip curled with satisfaction, and her eyes were almost playful as she looked amused and thoughtful. "I wonder what they would say if they knew I was in bed with a human?"

Kate gave a small chuckle at the thought, before giving the Rani a more wry smile. "You know, we're technically not in the bed. Or with each other enough for that term to be correct."

The Rani just stared at her for a second before her lips twitched. "I know. But that's easily rectified." She leaned in and captured Kate's lips with her own again, and ran her hands through soft blonde hair as Kate's began to map out the revealed skin of the Time Lady's torso.

"I haven't done this before...with a woman," Kate suddenly admitted, and the Rani just smiled down at her.

"That's alright, I haven't done this at all in several centuries. We'll work it out."

With that and another kiss, they fell onto the soft duvet once again and divested each other of the rest of their clothing.

* * *

When Kate woke, it was a drizzly morning outside. The rain pattered against the bedroom window with a comforting pitter patter. For a while she just watched the drops hitting the glass and racing down the pane, her bare body slowly stretching out under the cotton sheets.

Eventually she realised that there was an arm loosely draped slightly across her stomach.

Carefully, she turned to face the body it was attached to, and saw that the Rani was still asleep. For the first time, the alien woman actually looked relaxed and peaceful. Her auburn hair was free of its braid and spread around the pillow in braid-induced curls.

_I don't know if it's strange or sort of endearing to see her sleeping_, Kate considered, _though finding anything about her endearing proves how odd the last 24 hours have been._

Within five minutes, the Rani began to stir, and her grey eyes opened. For a moment they just looked at each other, until the Rani finally spoke.

"Hello," She said, as if it had only just occurred to her to greet the person she was in bed with.

"Hello," Kate replied with a tiny smile. "You know, I wasn't even sure if you slept."

"Not as much as you, but I do require it occasionally," The Rani said, "I was almost a week overdue."

The blonde human lent back on her pillows and stared up at the ceiling. "If I am going to be completely honest, I'm still processing...this."

"Understandable. It wasn't exactly something I predicted either. I never thought that I would ever find myself in bed with a human."

"I never thought I would find myself in bed with a Time Lord." Kate bit her lip thoughtfully. "I wonder what my father would think about that. A female one too, who's experimented on humans and enslaved species."

"I think that he would be glad that at least it wasn't the Master," The Rani said, "Compared to him, I'm quite favourable." They both chuckled.

"Even so, it's quite entertaining to picture his face," Kate said vaguely, laughing to herself. "He always warned me about Time Lords. I don't think that this was quite what he had in mind."

There was a long silence. Eventually, Kate couldn't bear it any longer and had to ask the questions nagging at her.

"So what happens now?" Her voice came out rather unsure and tentative. "Was this just...something that happened and now we go on as we were?" A horrid thought occurred to her and she spun to look at the other woman. "This wasn't just to add to your investigation, was it?"

The Rani looked amused and shook her head. "No. Though I suppose it does in a way, in retrospect."

"So...what then? Was this a one time thing?" Only as she asked it did Kate realise just how much most of her hoped that the Time Lady answered in the negative.

"Did you want it to be?"

"I...I don't know. It's still too strange to even think about. You're this impossible thing that I don't think I'll ever understand. And I don't know if this helps or makes it worse." Kate ran a hand through her hair nervously.

"It doesn't all have to be worked out right now," The Rani said slowly, "You make it sound as though I know what I'm doing."

"You don't? There's...things to work out?" Kate asked. The thought made her a little relieved, but a more rational part of her was rather concerned at what she was getting into.

"Yes, I think so. But in the meantime, I think that there are better ways to spend a morning like this." The Rani's hand traced the curve of Kate's hip.

"You're learning," Kate joked, and leaned in and kissed her.

"Well, if you're going to do something bad, might as well do it more than once," The brunette said wryly as her other hand came up to rest at the top of Kate's neck. With only a small movement, she was on top and they laughed as the sheets proved to be rather tangled and difficult to displace.

* * *

**I tried really hard to make this in character, which is tricky due to how random the situation is and how delicate their personalities are against each other. So please let me know how it came across and whether it was believable or not.**

**Thanks for reading, and reviews are appreciated! **

**-MayFairy :) **


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